Apple very quietly launched a brand-new iPhone model

When the iPhone 6 debuted, there was no 32GB option in the lineup. As was standard for the time, it came in 16/64/128GB configurations. Since then, Apple has bumped the base storage options on new iPhones to 32GB, but the 16GB iPhone 6 (and iPhone SE) have remained on sale.

So it’s a little unusual that Apple has put a 32GB iPhone 6 on sale in China in a gold color. What’s even stranger is that the phone isn’t available through Apple retail channels, but instead only through Taiwan Mobile.

9to5Mac spotted that Taiwan Mobile is pushing the gold 32GB iPhone 6 as an exclusive offer on its network as the cheapest iPhone ever. It’s only being sold as part of a monthly contract, so it’s difficult to compare the cost to the iPhone SE or iPhone 6 in North America, but it does seem to be cheap.

Adding a 32GB iPhone 6 option for the low-end is a confusing move for Apple. The iPhone SE is meant to fill the niche for a cheap(er) iPhone, and making the storage on the 6 bigger than the SE might cannibalize sales for Apple. At the same time, it might work as a way to sell people on a cheap iPhone that doesn’t look cheap. While the SE is visually an iPhone from years ago, the iPhone 6 still looks mostly identical to the more modern iPhone 7.

It’s still unclear if the iPhone SE is going to get a spec bump this year. The original SE debuted in the spring of 2016, so sometime in the next few months would be the time to update it, assuming Apple sticks to its regular update cycle.